Wild Cards
"Wild Cards" is the forty-eighth and forty-ninth episodes of . It originally aired on December 26, 2003. Plot Part I The Joker buys airtime on a large number of television channels and broadcasts his own reality television special from Las Vegas: he’s planted a time bomb somewhere on the Strip, and only the Justice League can disarm it, or else he’ll detonate it immediately. The bomb is set to go off in just under twenty-three minutes. Joker’s also planted a large number of cameras all over the city, allowing him, and the viewers, to keep track of the League’s every move. As people flee the city in panic (save for one old woman, who spends the entire ordeal playing slots, unaware of her surroundings), the League — Superman, Batman, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, and The Flash — arrive in Vegas. Superman quickly locates the bomb with his x-ray vision, but the League is attacked by Joker’s own squad of superpowered henchmen, the Royal Flush Gang. As they battle the League, Joker explains their origin: a group of five kids born with superpowers, they were imprisoned by the government as teenagers to be trained as human weapons, until Joker freed them. As the rest of the League fights, Batman defuses the bomb, only to find it is a fake. Superman scans the Strip, and finds twenty-five bombs, with just under fourteen minutes left. The League splits up to disarm them, harassed by the Gang. Batman, impressively, manages to talk Flash through disarming a bomb even while battling one of them, Jack. At one casino, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl are arguing over defusing a bomb. The Joker mocks the romantic tension between them, and decides, just for fun, to press his detonator. Hearing a beep, Lantern ejects Hawkgirl from the building, just as the bomb explodes. Part II Frantic, Hawkgirl searches the wreckage of the casino for Lantern. She finds him, gravely injured. She tries to revive him with CPR, then finally succeeds with an impromptu electroshock from her mace. Abandoning the bomb hunt, she flies Lantern to get medical help. Still fighting Jack, Batman manages to down a helicopter carrying Harley Quinn. Batman plays on her jealousy by insinuating Joker’s seeming affection for Ace, the last member of the Gang. By now, there is only one bomb left, with only a few minutes remaining. Superman holds off Ten and King while Flash tries to disarm it, but Joker distracts him. With exactly one second left, Flash just grabs the bomb and disappears – incredibly, managing to run it out of the city, drop it, and get away, as it is exploding. The Joker applauds the League’s success, but then reveals the horrific true nature of his plan: Ace has a basilisk gaze, the power to drive people insane just by looking at them, either in person or on TV. The whole bomb plot was a ploy to drive up the viewership of the program to the maximum – by Joker’s estimate, sixty or seventy million people are now watching – and now they can’t look away, as Ace has them mesmerized. In a few minutes, their minds will all be destroyed. A furious Harley arrives at the studio, inadvertently leading Batman to Joker’s hideout. Batman confronts Joker, but is disabled by Ace. Joker attacks him, literally "kicking him while he's down", and Batman tries to defend himself. As they struggle, Batman plucks something out of Joker’s pocket – the mind-control headband that Ace’s government handlers used to pacify her. Seeing it, Ace is enraged, and turns her power on Joker, driving him into a catatonic state. Ace walks out; Batman is too weak to follow her. Up in the Watchtower, Hawkgirl reports that Lantern is out of danger. He wakes up and confronts her, saying it is time for them to admit their feelings for each other. She demurs, but can’t deny the way she feels. For the first time, she removes her headdress, revealing her face, and they kiss. Continuity *Green Lantern's and Hawkgirl's relationship will later be put to the test on "Starcrossed" * When Ten says he's stronger than Superman, the Man of Steel dismisses it by saying he's heard it before. This alludes to episode "The Way of All Flesh" in which Metallo claimed the same thing. * Harley Quinn references the time the Joker traded her up for a commuted sentence, which was mentioned in the episode "Trial." * It is later revealed in the episode "Fearful Symmetry," that the Royal Flush Gang were products of Project Cadmus. * It is also hinted that, at the same time Joker released the Gang from captivity, he stole the advanced genetics technology that allowed him to artificially prolong his life, in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. * The Joker states that Harley always returns to him, referring to several Batman: The Animated Series and episodes where Harley forgave him in spite of his abusive behavior, namely "Harley and Ivy," "Harlequinade," "Trial," "Joker's Millions" and "Mad Love." Background Information Production Inconsistencies *Batman tells the Flash to disarm the bomb by disconnecting four wires in a specific order. After Flash's hands stop moving, all of the wires (more than four) have been disconnected. Likewise, when Superman disarms a bomb, he uses his heat vision to disconnect different wires, and in a different order. *When Superman and Flash start having hallucinations by watching Ace, there are no people around them, but when the camera cuts to a wider view, there are several people standing behind them. Trivia *First time Hawkgirl's face is seen. *Wonder Woman and J'onn J'onzz do not appear. *This episode marks the last performance of Mark Hamill as The Joker, who has voiced the character in the DC Animated Universe since 1992, for . *This episode also marks the last appearance of Harley Quinn, and the last performance of Arleen Sorkin as the character. *Batman insinuates that Ace has replaced Harley in Joker's affections; Ace's voice actress, Hynden Walch, went on to voice Harley's character for the non-DCAU series The Batman. *The Joker’s countdown starts just below twenty-three minutes, the average length of a half-hour television episode without commercials. *The Joker's line about stealing the kids away from their government handlers, "and they would have gotten away with it, too, were it not for me meddling with the kids!" is a spoof on the well-known catchphrase from Scooby-Doo. Hamill has often voiced characters in the direct-to-video movies of Scooby-Doo. *Joker buys his airtime using the alias "Gwynplaine Entertainment." Gwynplaine is the hero of Victor Hugo's novel "The Man Who Laughs," a circus performer who was abducted and mutilated as a child, a permanent grin carved into his face. Batman's creator, Bob Kane, admitted that he used Gwynplaine as a model when he created the Joker. "The Man Who Laughs" is also the name of a comic serial featuring Batman and the Joker. *Hawkgirl mockingly refers to Queen, after she assumes her metal armor and sword, as "Joan of Arc." *Flash's stunt with the last bomb is similar to one Batman pulled with a bomb planted by the Clock King in , "Time Out of Joint." *The episode is a subtle crossover with the Teen Titans animated series, as the members of the Royal Flush Gang are all voiced by actors from that series, with similarities to their Titans characters. * Bruce Timm has confirmed that the kids' distinctive-looking "headmaster" was designed as a cross between Marvel's Professor Charles Xavier, from their X-Men title, and DC's John Lynch, from Gen-13. (The DC Animation Forum) Cast Quotes Category:Justice League episodes